"COATS ON CHAIRS, AGAIN!!!!"

I hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing long weekend!
Coping with this freezing cold weather, I've tried to keep everyone distracted and busy by finishing up projects/assignments and planning for our big Social Studies Museum Gallery event. Thank you for your support this past week as many assessment opportunities presented themselves in preparation for me to write report cards on Friday.

So here's what we've been up to and what is coming up:

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Our focus this week has been on a new Language Arts target for 5E...learning how to write an organized paragraph that includes an introductory sentence, several supporting sentences and an effective concluding sentence. As Ryan pointed out yesterday, "Hey, this is going to help us write our paragraphs for our S.S. projects, Mrs. Eby!" I love it when the students have me all figured out!! He was absolutely correct. Not only are we practicing writing well-organized paragraphs for LA assignments but also to use throughout the core subject areas.

Our Van Allsburg book this week was called "Ben's Dream". The character is transported to various famous landmarks around the world in his dream. Each student chose one of the 10 landmarks Ben visited to research and will eventually write a PARAGRAPH on the information they discovered! We've completed the research already and will be writing our paragraphs next week.

A big OOPS on my part this week, I completely forgot to hand out the new book report assignments that I had promised in the blog posting last week. (They've been sitting on my desk all week!) I will definitely have those in your students' hands on Monday! The due date for the assignment will not be until Valentine's Day so there is still plenty of time. Just keep reading!

The students have begun using their new Reading Log format this week. On Monday, I will be checking everyone's reading log entries to ensure they have read consistenly for the week and have written ONE big response for the week.

MATHEMATICS:

We've been cruising through our decimal unit this week! The students are catching on very quickly as we practice reading, writing and representing various decimal numbers to the hundredths place. We've been working with number lines this week and comparing the value of decimal numbers using "greater than" and "less than" symbols.

Next week the students will be adding the "thousandths" place to their understanding of decimals and how to add and subtract with decimal numbers!

SOCIAL STUDIES:

OK folks...this is it! We've finally come to the end of our research of the aboriginal peoples of Canada. The students have finished up their paragraphs and will be putting them together on their groups display board next week. We are aiming to present our projects in our Museum Gallery Exhibit on Thursday, January 22nd in the afternoon. We will be setting up our classroom like a museum to display our project work and artifacts to share with other classes in the school and open it up to you, the parents as well. I will work on creating a schedule for the afternoon and will be sure to send home a more detailed time for your visit, early on in the week.

Once we have completed this unit, the students will begin to learn about the next group of people who made North America (particularly Canada) their home!

SCIENCE:

This week started off on Monday with our Mystery Powders experiment! The students continued to investigate the characteristics and properties of a substance by using their senses to try and identify 6 similar yet uniquely different powdery like substances. The addition of water and vinegar definitely helped to identify two of our mystery powders!

Ask your child how to identify baking soda without tasting it?

Next week we will have some fun learning about the property of "stickability" (is that a real word?) and how to write an effective scientific experiment.

FRENCH:

The students handed in their "Super Sandwich" recipes on Thursday! They look scrumptious and nutritious! We are winding up this unit with a quiz on Monday, January 19th. The students worked on their review on Friday and have been asked to practice their vocabulary sheets and the review package over the weekend to prepare for the quiz.

Our next unit in French centers around the theme of "La Famille"!

BLOGGER OF THE WEEK

by: Mitchell

I’m Mitchell, the Blogger of the Week. I am going to talk about the book I am reading. I recommend The Birchbark House series #1 and #2 because they have sad parts, humorous parts, action and even happy moments. I recommend them also because they are a nice length and have the perfect font size. The book is about a aboriginal girl named Omakayas and her family. The plot of the story involves many things I can’t name all at once. The book goes in seasons: summer, fall, winter and spring. My favourite is winter because very, very sad parts happen. Omakayas has a very emotional life in the book for sure. Right now I’m reading book #2, The Game of Silence. It is about new puppies, a new brother and a war. To find out more you’re going to have to read the book! In conclusion it’s a great series for all ages to read.

OTHER:

• Physical Activity Day packages went home this Friday for you to review with your child to decide which of the options your child would like to participate on Friday, February 27th. Registration is Friday, January 23rd...please do not hand in your registration or cheque until that day! If you have any further questions, please call/e-mailMr. Babiuk at the school.


• Report Cards go home Friday, January 29th!


• Thank you Mrs. Beazley and Mrs. Meyer for a great Super Lunch on Thursday
  

Stay warm and toasty...hopefully that thermometer will be making a rise this weekend

Mrs. Eby